2 comments:

Jacqueline O'Connor
said...

Having bought several of Bacevich's books (Washington Rules, The Long War, The New American Imperialism), I was interested to hear his brief commentary. I was shocked (yet not) to hear his thought that younger people now consider war as normal, without conclusion. Even more reason to return to a draft.

My concerns about the military have grown since the Invasion of Iraq and grow from being a new resident in a military community. The degree of separation between the military (active and retired) and "others" is so obvious and lead me to fear a military "junta" in this country. There is such an attitude of entitlement by the military. One example, the base has its own schools. Why? There are good schools available in the community but they have their own "system". When I asked their school board members and a former garrison commander why, only one person would answer. The answer was "why do you care, it's not local money"? The disconnect was so clear. And of course it's all our money and he was wrong, once the schools are built the state pays for maintenance and operatiobn.

I fear the military. And I think we should begin to dismantle the 900 foreign bases we maintain and cut the standing military before we are unable to put this genie back in the bottle.

Jacqueline, your dead on the spot about the fear of the US military taking over political power. Ike advised us. But then again those aspiring the American Dream, to make their million before they were 30, turned a deaf ear. And the money deafened the other ear.